Thank you. Yeah, I was able to get to the 11 non-EC players with some confidence. It's the U23 player thing that I really can't seem to nail down myself. And also the old thing: You don't know what you don't know. Is there some rule where, say, you can not buy more than one DEL2 player per year or can you not make a player transfer more than three times or whatever...
I had been running some U22 numbers (before I had dug deeper into the rules of this specific league) and every team had 3+ U22 players last season except Fischtown and Wolfsburg (2), but that number jumps up when you include U23.
And yeah, I grabbed the official rulebook to no avail. Then I started trying to google things in German, which I'm sure was pointless haha
I found an article from 2018 where they explained (or tried to) the plans for the roster rules (particularly U23 and U20 players) going forward. I will summarize the important points. However, I am not 100% sure if they have made additional changes to this plan since 2018 that were not covered back then.
Back then each team could dress 19 skaters (no age restrictions). Over the following years they reduced that number step by step to 16. The remaining 3 spots can only be filled with players of the U23 category. If they can't or won't dress 3 U23 players they will have to dress fewer than 19 skaters.
These U23 players also have to be eligible to play for the German national team.
Before the 18/19 season each DEL team was allowed to register a total of 32 player licenses over the course of a season (U20 players did not count against the total). Starting with the 18/19 season the total number of licenses was increased to 33, but only 29 could be regular licenses (players 24 and older). The remaining four licenses were reserved for U20 and U23 players. However only one license for an U23 player was allowed the rest had to be U20.
U20 goalies are not covered by this rule and don't count against the total.
Teams that qualify for the Champions Hockey League are permitted 2 additional licenses.
By the 2025/26 season the number of total licenses per season shall be reduced to 31 and only 25 of those licenses are available for players 24 and older, the rest is reserved for U23 and U20 players (no information if there are further restrictions)
Unfortunately there is no specific information about the current rules.
Link:
The full article in German
There has been a lot of discussion that last couple of years if these rules make any sense, since many of the U23 players don't get significant playing time. It is not rare the see U23 players dressed but never playing a single shift, just to satisfy the rules. And statistically those games count as games played.
Also, once these players turn 24, 50% of them are out of a job in the DEL and move to the DEL2, other lower leagues or retire all together. Sometimes they manage to make it back to the DEL a few years later, most of the times they don't.
Very sad. RIP Tobi